NEW R2S WHOPPER PLOPPER 75 = 7LB LM BASS

[ghost]

In a nutshell, the WP 75 size works great, for the most part! First of all, the 1st thing I hooked with the WP 75 was a pine tree, that I forgot was behind me. I had to stand on a bench to get my new lure un-treed.

 

Got my lure back, made 3 casts and on the 3rd cast, started reeling and part way retrieving it...a huge blowup!

 

I knew right away it was a big bass, but didn't see it. It pulled drag, I thought I didn't set my drag but I did.

 

So glad for stout size 4 treble hooks that come stock on the WP 75. Those 2 trebles kept the bass pinned in till I was able to land it, even after a few jumps out of the water. No bent thin wire stock hooks! That's one thing I like about this new WP size. It's shorter, stubbier in length and it's almost guaranteed both treble hooks will be on the fish. That's what I saw when I landed the bass, both hooks were in its mouth and on the side of its mouth. No worries of just one treble on the fish and hoping it does not come off when the bass jumps out of the water or pulls harder.

 

I can tell you that the WP 75 is just shy of 5/8 oz and casts far on baitcast gear. No problems making long casts, it casts better than the WP 90 at 1/2 oz.

 

I did notice that if you reel fast, the 75 will start to barrel roll. This happened a few times. A medium retrieve works good, no rolling. I also noticed that at times if reeled fast, it will swim on its side. Even though it has a deeper belly than the other sized WP, this happens and not too happy about that.

 

I will be adding a black barrel swivel and black split ring to my WP 75, so it won't twist my line. I hope doing this, the action of the lure is still the same. Also I hope it will not add too much weight on the front end that it will submarine. The WP 90 at times will submarine when you start reeling. I did not notice the 75 going underwater when I started to retrieve.

 

The sound the tail makes, sounds similar to the bigger WP's but in a compact size, not as loud as a 130 size. I think the sound is close to the 110 size. I'm glad the sound stayed the same and not any different sounding. 

 

It's a good looking lure, the treble hooks mean business and has it has very good body detail compared to the other sized WP's. I don't know if the fish cares for those cosmetics on the lure, maybe color helps in certain situations. Attention to detail in cosmetics, is more for the fisherman.

 

IMO, the WP 75 needs a few refinements so it won't swim on its side or barrel roll on faster retrieves. No aforementioned problems when reeled slow to medium, runs straight. Not sure what R2S can do to improve those problems or what other DIY ways besides adding a barrel swivel.

 

Hope that helps you to decide if you want to pick up the Whooper Plopper 75. I'm a Whopper Plopper fan, I own a few 130's, 110's, 90's and now one 75 size in bone color. I may get a couple more of the 75 in loon and another color. I also own the big and smaller BPS Double Down, dual prop ones.

 

BTW, the new Ozark Trail analog scale weighed the bass accurately. I did forget to measure the bass with its built in tape measure. I wanted to get the bass back in the water ASAP so not to stress the bass too much. I did put the bass in the water a few times before I took other pics and passers by wanting to look and take their own pics. The big bass swam off with no harm. Not bad for a SoCal park lake bass, being that big and hitting a topwater at 6pm.

 

Thanks for reading my review.

 

 

[tcbass]

Congrats, great bass!!!

[ChrisD46]

I think River to Sea will have to spend some time marketing the WP 75 differently ... Too many web reviews dedicated to:  "How to make the former WP90 retrieve better" pretty much resulted in the WP110 being developed (for those that didn't want to go with the larger WP 130 which retrieves great !) ... For Small Mouth and Spots the WP110 is a great size and retrieves well - if I lived in CA. , TX. or FL I would use the WP130 with no reservations for LM Bass .

[A-Jay]

 Nice Review & Beautiful Bass ~

My experience with these bait is that a 'rolling bait' or one that is 'turning on it's side' is a product of too much speed.

Too much meaning, it's not designed to 'burned' - the magic comes from the pace it's designed to work best at.

I have found no benefits to exceeding that.

If I want or feel I need more speed from a top water presentation, I'll select a different bait that runs correctly at a faster pace.

YMMV

Congrats 

A-Jay

[ghost]

A-Jay, if I could cast a buzzbait as far as a Whopper Plopper, I would use that so there would be no rolling. That's the big advantage of the WP, I can cast much farther where the bass are not being hassled by other fishermen who are fishing not casting as far. 

[A-Jay]

9 minutes ago, ghost said:

A-Jay, if I could cast a buzzbait as far as a Whopper Plopper, I would use that so there would be no rolling. That's the big advantage of the WP, I can cast much farther where the bass are not being hassled by other fishermen who are fishing not casting as far. 

OK ~

A buzzbait is also not a 'fast' topwater, at least not for me.

In fact, the slower (and squeakier) I can present it the more interest it seems to attract.

Guess what I'm trying to convey is - perhaps consider slowing your roll a bit with the WP.

You may find that it will still garner strikes.

A-Jay

 

[ghost]

Good point, thank you

[tcbass]

3 hours ago, ghost said:

A-Jay, if I could cast a buzzbait as far as a Whopper Plopper, I would use that so there would be no rolling. That's the big advantage of the WP, I can cast much farther where the bass are not being hassled by other fishermen who are fishing not casting as far. 

 

I’d say that the Whopper Plopper has more advantages over a buzzbait. 

 

-  Casts farther. 

 

-  Multiple hooks for higher percentage chance of hookups. 

 

-  Can be run at a wider range of speeds from very fast to extremely slow.  

 

-  More durable than buzzbaits.

 

-  Can be cast in heavy winds.  

[gim]

2 hours ago, tcbass said:

 

I’d say that the Whopper Plopper has more advantages over a buzzbait. 

 

-  Casts farther. 

 

-  Multiple hooks for higher percentage chance of hookups. 

 

-  Can be run at a wider range of speeds from very fast to extremely slow.  

 

-  More durable than buzzbaits.

 

-  Can be cast in heavy winds.  

All good points, however, sometimes in scattered cover like lily pads or other emergent vegetation, treble hooks easily get hung up whereas the single hook of a buzz bait does not.

[Darren.]

Excellent catch! Congrats!

[tcbass]

53 minutes ago, gimruis said:

All good points, however, sometimes in scattered cover like lily pads or other emergent vegetation, treble hooks easily get hung up whereas the single hook of a buzz bait does not.

 

For sure. 

 

 

Time for a paddle tail frog then!

[rippin-lips]

I personally think they will end up redesigning it at some point. Like how they made some small changes to the 110 when it came out. A friend and I both used ours the other evening for a few hours. Neither of us experienced any rolling or swimming on its side. Our experience was it needed to be reeled fairly fast to get it to plop. The other thing we noticed was sometimes it would plop real easily and others it didn’t have that distinct plopping sound to it. This is the first run of the 75 and I think they’re some small issues that need ironed out still. I tried the swivel method after seeing it on a bassresource video, but all it did was make my plopper barrel roll. Opposite of what it should have done haha. 

[PaBassMan13]

After throwing the 90’s and 110’s for a year I have to say I love the new 75’s. Not that I didn’t catch bass on the 90 or 110 but I did have times where the 90 would start to spin on me. But again; they did catch fish. However; this new 75 is awesome. It’s a little heavier than the 90 and it’s the “newer” style like the 110’s. Good hooks; good split rings and the same tail as the 110. But a new profile designed more like a crankbait. I have found zero issues with this new bait and have found it runs great at a slow to moderate retrieve. Plus I believe it’s just as loud in the water as the 110. This was the whopper plopper I was really waiting for. First (and only trip) out with them; wow!! I actually sold all of my ploppers to make way for eight of these new baits. I tried to post a few pics of my success but I guess the file size was too big :( 

[Looch]

OP, How well does it rip through weeds? I really like the 130 because of how it can handle weeds. I think I get more strikes when I can make contact with the weeds. I still get lots of dinks on the 130, I dont think the fish can see the size or color that well on the 90-130.

 

R2S need to put split rings on all of them like the 130 and 190. Anyone know what brand rings R2S uses on the front of the 130 and 190? Those things are nice and strong 

On 7/23/2018 at 5:51 PM, tcbass said:

 

I’d say that the Whopper Plopper has more advantages over a buzzbait. 

 

-  Casts farther. 

 

-  Multiple hooks for higher percentage chance of hookups. 

 

-  Can be run at a wider range of speeds from very fast to extremely slow.  

 

-  More durable than buzzbaits.

 

-  Can be cast in heavy winds.  

-doesn't sink is a giant one too. 

 

 

[FishTank]

Nice catch.  

 

I picked up two of them today, 110's in bone and loon.  Will see how they do in about 5 hours.

[Gary777]

I have a 110 and have caught upwards of 50 large mouth bass on it so far. I'm in a high pressure area so those are good numbers. The Bass are larger and aggressive... though I've caught a couple MAD dinks. lol. I like the WP's so much that I called River2Sea today about getting more and setting myself up right (Rods, line, etc.).

 

I called namely on setting myself up for Muskie fishing... here's what they said in case you wonder. He said that the guys there at R2S are throwing 190's with Fast action Swim Bait Rods... 7'6" to 8' (Some even using 9' Rods... Medium Heavy or Heavy... using 50-65lb braid. I'm ordered the St. Croix Mojo Bass (I'll just cover up the "Bass" on the rod with some tape so the Muskie don't know) 7'10" swim bait rod.

 

Anyway, Back on topic... we got to talking about the new 75. I asked... what's the point of it over the 90 (I don't have any 90's but was considering buying them for my kid)?

 

A few key points:

- The Profile is short, fat version of the 90 with a 110 tail... making it a lot louder than the 90.

- The Body is fat so it will run better at higher speeds than the 90... I guess the 90 has a tendency to roll because there's not much of a "Keel" there. 

- The 90 has perfect speed with perfect "plop, plop, plop" sound without body roll... but you can't go very fast without rolling em I hear. 

- The new 75 will run faster than the 90 but still give that deeper "plop plop plop" sound... he claimed you can pretty much burn it with a 9:1 reel. Based on what I read above... it sounds like experiences may vary.

- The 75's are fatter which makes them more buoyant... as a result of being more buoyant, they were able to put more beefier hooks on them than the 90's.

 

And just when I thought it couldn't get better.... he mentions that:

- The Chris Lane Top Notch Lure is very productive out in California. They're using them as follow up baits to the Whopper Ploppers. What wont eat a WP, will destroy a Top Notch!

 

So there ya go... we all now need a new collection of 75's AND Top Notch lures (Just one size... for now LOL)

 

 

 

[Sam]

You learned three things on your venture that we all know we should be doing:

 

1.  Look up and behind you for any tree, tree branches or brush and plants before you cast.

2.  Always set the drag and on a baitcaster, the spool tension.

3.  You retrieve the 75 slower than a larger Whooper Plopper.

 

Congrats on your catch. Now you have set your bench mark go out and beat it!!!!

[Bermise]

I need to start carrying a scale with me. 

[iabass8]

Got my 75's in the other today and was able to use them today. Awesome bait. They aren't meat to be burned. Steady retrieve had no issues with rollovers or blow outs.